It was a long leisurely three-day holiday in the U.S., giving us plenty of time to stoke the Mashable fire with fuel for thought all weekend long.

What? You were out gallavanting around, missing out on all the hard news, frivolity, mirth and madness of our eclectic yet carefully measured Mashable weekend coverage? Good for you. It was a nice weekend to be offline.

No need to grieve, because you can indeed have it all. We’ve corralled the weekend’s plethora of posts in one handy place for you, right here:

Intel has revealed at Computex trade show it will direct its mobile computing efforts towards an entirely new category of laptops called Ultrabooks.

Intel’s vision of the Ultrabook consists of a thin, elegant machine, powered by the new 22nm Ivy Bridge processors, which costs under $1,000.

The Ultrabook should bring all the benefits of tablets but with the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops – a marriage between the MacBook Air and the iPad, if you will.

Intel plans to deliver the Ivy Bridge to the market by the end of the first quarter of 2012, and shift 40 percent of consumer laptops to the Ultrabook design by the end of that year. In 2013 and beyond the Ultrabooks will be powered by Intel’s next generation of chips, codenamed Haswell, which will use even less power, enabling manufacturers to produce even thinner and lighter laptops.

The first Ultrabooks, however, will be based on Intel’s current Sandy Bridge architecture, and one of them was already introduced at Computex: the Asus UX21. Don’t expect anything revolutionary: it’s a thin and stylish 11.6-inch laptop, powered by an Intel Core i5 CPU and sporting an USB 3.0 port, a mini-HDMI port, SSD storage and weighing at 2.2 pounds. The speedy storage and powerful CPU do give it several features that make it similar to a tablet: for example, Asus claims the UX21 can resume from sleep mode in two seconds.

After finding success revolutionizing restaurant reservations, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton has taken up a new challenge: to bring neighbors closer together through hyperlocal sharing.

Templeton’s new startup, OhSoWe, quietly launched earlier this month. At its core, it’s an online community platform for neighborhoods to network and communicate online. Instead of providing local news (like AOL’s Patch), OhSoWe provides a website for posting items to share or starting a local discussion.

Templeton told Mashable that a big part of the problem he sees is with the unused hammer, lawnmower or shovel simply collecting dust in the shed. Most tools only get used for a few minutes per year; why not make it easier to share or lend those items to neighbors? Why aren’t neighbors sharing and lending their stuff more often?

OhSoWe is an attempt to solve that problem. It has three key sections for connecting with the people who live closest: Neighbors, Communication and Shareables. Neighbors is simply a list of people who live near you. OhSoWe takes verifying a person’s address seriously; you have to either use a credit card or a postcard to verify your address. Communication is a public message board for your “Neighborstead” (OhSoWe’s term for its hyperlocal groups). Shareables is like a local Craigslist where you can offer items to lend or sell. You can also offer your skills (e.g. plumbing, web design, etc.) to your neighbors.

Templeton envisions a future where neighbors organize group garage sales and lending exchanges through OhSoWe. It has a long road ahead through convincing neighborhoods to join and share their garden tools. The startup is currently self-funded by Templeton and co-founder Arun Sivashankaran.

It’s summer: Time for outdoor festivals, picnics and anachronistic celebrations of our fading youth (see: crochet matches, clambakes and ironic sock hops). And what better way to capture those memories than video?

While winter’s chill might impel us to put away the camera — lest chapped cheeks and running noses be immortalized forever in digital celluloid — summer is undoubtedly a time for rosy-hued posterity. Which is why we’ve compiled a list of video-sharing and -creating apps to help you document this, the best summer of your life (or at least it will look that way with a filter or two).

Super 8

Yes, it may be a promotional app — launched to hype J.J. Abrams's upcoming blockbuster, Super 8 — but this iOS offering is a wonderful throwback to ’60s-’70s home movies of old.

The app [iTunes link] boasts a gorgeous UI complete with a camera “case,” which contains an instructional manual as well as your camera. When you pull up the camera — by tapping it — you can rotate it, swiping to the front to add an array of lenses (black and white, sepia, chromatic, color, x-ray, negative and infrared). You can then swipe to the viewfinder, where you can add more scratches to the film (to get that vintage look) as well as increase the shakiness and add a camera light.

After filming your movie, you can click a button on the side of the camera graphic to “eject” the film, which will allow you to add credits and a title, as well as edit. You can then develop the film to add it to your library. Sadly, you can only share via email; Facebook would have been a nice option.

The coolest part of the app, however, is the projector, which you pull down with a swipe to watch a film — a la home movies in the den.

iMotion HD

If you spend a lot of summer afternoons lying in the tall grass, watching the clouds amble by, then iMotion HD [iTunes link] is the app for the cinematographer beating at the walls of your soul.

This iOS app basically lets you take time-lapse, stop-motion films with your iPhone quickly and easily. Just choose the interval you want the app to snap photos, whether you want to do so manually, and record — all in HD. You can then share the video via YouTube or email (those options will cost you $0.99), or save it to iTunes or the iMotion gallery.

Use it to create a film depicting just how quickly those summer days flip by.

Imagine the most epic of stage dives: careening off the lip of an outdoor platform, twisting in the air, and landing in a glistening sea of concert-going revelers — an air ballet that takes place in a mere handful of seconds.

Now, imagine that someone has caught that collection of seconds on video and made it all the more epic by adding color treatment, music and transitions to create a mini-production to share with all your friends. Well, that’s Viddy [iTunes link].

If you can use Instagram, Viddy should be a snap to navigate. Simply create an account, connect with friends via Twitter, Facebook and your phone's address book, and start shooting. Click the "Share" button in the middle of the navigation panel to pull up a video from your gallery or to shoot a new one. Trim the clip as you see fit using a film strip timeline at the top of the screen (as in iMovie).

After you finish trimming, you can apply effects using what the Viddy team calls "production packages." These are like Instagram's color treatment filters, except with music and transitions. You can choose how much the film is treated by using a slide bar.

After choosing your package, you can add a title, location and tags, and share the video on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Foursquare and Tumblr functionality are coming soon.

As in Instagram, users also have a feed of other users' activities, the ability to comment on and “like” posts, and an option to see what videos are trending or popular.

Ever had a party during which a veritable carnival of grotesques (a.k.a. your friends) execute all manner of amusing capers? Don’t you wish you could capture those events on film, and tag each and every one of your pals the moment they appear on the reel? Enter BlipSnips [iTunes link].

This iOS app boasts the unique ability to tag friends using their Facebook and Twitter accounts at specific points in a video, as well as to add comments to particular time stamps (much like in SoundCloud's mobile app). Users can then post those videos to Facebook and Twitter. One can also tag a video using geolocation — you know, so everyone know’s where the party’s at.

The rumor mill has been churning Monday afternoon with reports that Twitter is working on its own photo-sharing service that would compete with the likes of Twitpic and Yfrog.

TechCrunch first reported the tip, citing multiple unnamed sources, Monday afternoon. And now All Things D seems to have confirmed the story as well, going so far as to say the service will be announced this week. ATD‘s story also cites unnamed sources but claims the announcement will be made at its conference, D9, this week in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

It wouldn’t come as too huge of a surprise if these reports turn out to be true. After Twitter asked developers to stop building third-party clients, the company announced its acquisition of TweetDeck. It did take months for those rumors to finally be confirmed, however, so we may be hearing these rumors for some time before Twitter makes any official announcement.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for a comment and will update this post when we learn more. UPDATE: Twitter’s spokespeople have responded, and they’re not commenting on the report.

Each Monday, Mashable highlights an exclusive new video or song. Check out all our Music Monday picks.

Playing for Change is out with a new video Monday that gives the global treatment to the classic Rolling Stones song, “Gimme Shelter.”

If you're not familiar with Playing for Change, it's a band and foundation created by Mark Johnson, who spent four years traveling and filming musicians from around the world (local and street musicians alike).

In 2008, he released a cover of the song "Stand By Me." That video has garnered close to 30 million YouTube views, and it helped lead to a PBS documentary and CD series. The Playing for Change band was also born (and will soon be playing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans), as well as The Playing for Change Foundation, which seeks to support music education.

The video above is from the band’s upcoming album, PFC 2: Songs Around The World. “There are many songs that can touch deep into the human heart, and sometimes we need songs that sincerely express the urgency of our situation as a planet,” says Johnson. “We have far too many starving children, warring nations and divided people. ‘Gimme Shelter’ is a song with such a purpose and can inspire us without preaching.”

As a rule, Playing for Change makes an effort to go into a variety of global communities to find performers to contribute to its albums and accompanying videos. Johnson gave us the rundown on some of the musicians in this video. Check that out their stories below while you watch the video.

The video starts with two musicians playing Delta Blues with a steel guitar (Italy) and a washboard (New Orleans).

Both Roberto Luti (National Steel Guitar) and Washboard Chaz have dedicated their lives to playing the blues. Although they are thousands of miles apart in this video they have both witnessed first hand the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the chaos that can follow tragedy. They play this song with deep roots and soul and offer the bed for the West African and Indian percussion and subtle Jamaican groove.

These musicians are accompanied by members of the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, a group that was formed inside the refugee camps during the Sierra Leone genocide. Their expression and laid back sound adds to the depth of the song as every note they play comes from seeing the horrors of war and the damage it causes generations that follow.

There is no voice in the world that better captures the essence of human suffering and perseverance than Taj Mahal. His harmonica and lead vocal on the final verse brings together all the emotion and urgency of the track. As Taj once told me, ‘The Blues is turning a bad situation into a better one.’ I hope as a human race we all go from the darkness to the light and let the music lead us there.

A collection of console emulators, including N64oid, Nesoid and Snesoid, have been removed from the Android Market. HotHardware and Engadget both report that the -oid series developer, Yong Zhang, has also lost his Android Market developer account.

Although emulators have cleared various legal challenges in the past, most commercial application stores — including Apple’s App Store — ban emulators unless the packaged ROMs are specifically licensed.

Until recently, Google has seemingly turned a blind eye toward emulators, allowing users to sell emulators for virtually every classic console or old-school PC platform. That started to change in April, when Google removed the PSX4Droid emulator from the Android Market. The removal of PSX4Droid from the Android Market was suspect, especially given Sony’s announcement of the Xperia Play Android phone, which can download and play many classic PlayStation One games.

In the case of -oid series, the decision to remove the apps purportedly came after game maker (and console maker of old) Sega filed a complaint with Google. Presumably, Sega is upset that the emulators allow users who have illegally obtained ROM files for its games to play those games on their Android smartphones or tablets.

In response, the -oid developer has made its emulators available on the third-party Android market, SlideME and is making the apps free to download for now — so that users won’t have to worry about paying for an app twice.

Although we understand the position that Google is in — as well as the reasons why company’s like Sega file complaints against emulators — we can’t help but feel like the rules are changing halfway through the game.

For the past two and a half years, the Android Market has been the Wild West of app marketplaces. The distinct lack of restrictions on the marketplace has become the rallying cry for many Android users. That openness can come at a price — malware sometimes sneaks in — but it is a distinct part of what separates Google from Apple.

It is perfectly within Google’s rights to remove applications that break its terms of service, but we can’t help but question why a category of applications is perfectly legitimate one day, then pulled without notice the next.

Application developers that believe they can use the Android Market as a platform to sell apps that might be perceived as “gray” by some other marketplaces (Amazon, Apple, Microsoft), might want to think twice before listing solely in the Android Market. If your app is for an emulator or a quasi-legal music-sharing service, the Android Market might not be the best place to go.

The number of adults in the U.S. who make phone calls over the Internet has risen exponentially in recent years. According to a survey released Monday from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, about a quarter of American adult Internet users have used the Internet to make calls.

In early 2007, only 8% of Internet users had ever placed a call online. And during other times in the 2000s, about 10% of web users had made calls online.

The study, conducted in April and May, also found that on average, 5% of Internet users on any given day are online to make calls. In 2007, that number was 2%, and at various points in the 2000s it was closer to 1%.

Instagram users can now take advantage of hundreds of other photo effects and filters, thanks to a new feature in the app 100 Cameras in 1 [iTunes link].

100 Cameras in 1, which is available for the iPhone and iPad, [iTunes link] lets users to apply various effects (and layer effects) onto photographs either stored on the device’s camera roll or taken directly from the device itself.

The app already lets users share photos to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Smugmumg, Dropbox and email, but the latest update also lets them send a photo directly to Instagram. Rather than using the API to directly publish a photo (something Instagram doesn’t currently allow), users instead open the photo that is saved in 100 Cameras in 1 directly inside Instagram. At this point, additional details can be added about location, Instagram’s own filters can be applied and users can choose what caption or sharing services they want to use.

It’s a clever way to get around Instagram’s API publishing limitations, while still respecting the spirit of the Instagram app itself. In a little more than six months, Instagram has amassed over 4 million users. In the ever-growing swath of mobile photo sharing apps, Instagram stands out as the brightest success story, despite only being available for the iPhone.

Part of what makes Instagram so special is, of course, it’s easy to use filters and tilt-shift effects, coupled with the ability to post to multiple social networks and services at once. For me, however, what really makes Instagram stand-out from the rest of the pack is the way in which the app lets me browse what my friends are doing. Like Om Malik, I too have taken to using Instagram as the hub for my photo-sharing universe. Even when I don’t use Instagram to take the photos I share, I almost always end up sharing those photos through Instagram.

I hope other photo app makers will consider integrating “send to Instagram” support in their own apps. Moreover, I hope that at some point, Instagram will consider whitelisting applications or services that can publish directly to the Instagram network.

What are your favorite photo filter and photo sharing apps? Let us know.

In the competitive world of business it can be hard to stand out. A creative business card can help differentiate you from others and one way in which we’re seeing people attempt this is through augmented reality.

Augmented reality cards can provide a wealth of information including additional text, images and even video just by holding the card up to a webcam. When done right, it yields quite impressive results.

We’ve found seven great examples to share with you, ranging from a simple showcase to an entire augmented reality resume. Take a look through the video gallery below for more ideas and let us know in the comments if you’d consider this for your next card.

1. Portfolio Card

This business card serves as a mini portfolio showcase.

2. Twitter Business Card

This card features real-time Twitter updates as a clever twist.

3. Butterfly Effect Card

Genuine Labs' "butterfly effect" business card is a high-end experience. An informal video presentation from the card's owner really gives you a sense of personality you'd never get from an average card.

4. The Avatar Concept

Burton Posey's creation is simple, yet fun and effective with a cool 3D avatar as well as links to find out more about him.

5. Cubed Card

This neat effort animates the card like it's a cube. The spinning teapot adds a nice dash of Alice in Wonderland weirdness.

6. The Full Monty Card

This impressive effort combines social networks, portfolio display and even the option to call the card owner from within the animation.

7. Resume Card

The CWJobs.co.uk team took the augmented reality business card concept a step further by creating an augmented reality resume for David Woods. It's well done and makes us wonder if this kind of presentation will become more standard in years to come.

Looking forward to buying the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1? That device might become obsolete sooner than you think: Samsung plans to launch a 4G LTE-equipped version of the Galaxy Tab in 2011.

Samsung’s J.K. Shin revealed details about the upcoming tablet in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. Shin also says the successor of Samsung’s latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, is slated for release in the first half of 2012.

With a new version of Galaxy Tab 10.1 replacing an older model this summer (after Samsung decided that the original was not good enough to compete with the iPad) in 2011, another version of the device in the same year seems a little too hectic, especially for customers who are always on the lookout for the best value for money. However, the details on the the form factor and the specifications of the upcoming devices are still a bit vague; we’ll just have to wait a little to see what Samsung has prepared for the near future.

Shin also addressed the recent lawsuit from Apple, who claims Samsung has infringed on several of its patents when designing both its smartphones and tablets. “We have used many similar designs over the past years and it [Apple's allegation] will not be legally problematic,” he said.

Each Monday, Mashable highlights an exclusive new video or song. Check out all our Music Monday picks.

If American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman were to direct a music video, well, then you would have the new vid for UNKLE and Nick Cave’s collaboration, “Money and Run.”

Never you fear, the above video — directed by Tom Haines — isn’t wholly X-rated (it’s more like the edited-for-TV version of American Psycho than the director’s cut), it’s just straight-up ominous and disturbing. (Which means that it is NSFW, so be warned, O cubicle-dwellers.)

“It has a sort of Clockwork Orange-esque feeling about it,” says James Lavelle, of UNKLE. “It follows the idea of taking the money and running — how vulgar and gratuitous we are financially at this point in time. The story follows the excesses of rich individuals preying on the weak and poor.”

“It is not intended as a direct broadside to any particular politician, though borrows from the iconography and styling of the Bullingdon set who reign supreme,” says Haines. “I suppose it's a crude allegory, but in that sense it allows us to have a lot of fun with the scenarios and settings. The kind of fun that makes you feel uneasy in hindsight.”

Taken out of the EP’s context, the song is a tour de force, and fits just as easily within the canon of Cave’s work at it does UNKLE’s. Tracks like “Sunday Song,” featuring Rachel Fannan, are much more delicate, making the album a collection of varied tone and stories, rather than a single narrative.

“What’s nice about hearing music is that it takes you on a bit of a journey,” Lavelle says. “We try to be quite eclectic with what we’re doing, so we wanted the EP to have a nice journey to it.”

While we do dig the song, Lavelle, we would say that the journey the characters in this video take is far from “nice.”

A new teaser trailer for David Fincher’s upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has hit the web. The highly anticipated English-language film adaptation of Steig Larsson’s hit trilogy isn’t slated to hit theaters until December. However, it appears the viral campaign is already taking off.

The teaser, which hit YouTube over the weekend, is purportedly from Europe, where it was allegedly covertly recorded inside a movie theater. After viewing the teaser, however, we echo The Hollywood Reporter’s contention that this isn’t a covert cam job, but part of a greater viral marketing strategy.

Consider the facts:

The trailer contains a red-band MPAA advisory notice before it starts. That’s all well and good, except the MPAA is an American organization, thus, why would that notice be displayed in Europe?

The video footage is off-center and designed to look as if it has been taken inside a theater, however, the sound is clear, and the picture remains in focus.

The washed out colors, apparently a result of “recording inside theater” look post-processed. Take it from someone who has seen hundreds of shaky-camera trailer recordings — this was a professional.

The angles and framing for the final bit of the teaser that starts with “Columbia Pictures” is just too perfect. Moreover, the black levels in the titles match the so-called theater frames perfectly.

For what it’s worth, the website dragontattoo.com, which is promoted in the teaser, currently just redirects to Sony’s official website.

We’re going to go on record and call this a cleverly branded viral video. We can’t wait to watch how the campaign develops, especially as the film nears release.

3D is no longer exclusive to movie studios. If you can scrape together two camcorders, some sticky tape and access to a hooked-up computer, you’re just a few steps away from making your own three-dimensional cinematic works of art.

This is largely thanks to YouTube‘s free online 3D Editor suite. Mashable spoke to Samuel Kvaalen, YouTube software engineer who helped develop the product. Kvaalen told us why the video-sharing company created the tool in the first place: “The idea was trying to make creating 3D videos accessible to as many users as possible in a simple, easy manner.”

So is it really easy to make your own 3D YouTube video? After a quick walk-through of the software with Kvaalen, we tested it out. Here’s our super-simple, step-by-step look at how to shoot and edit a three-dimensional video.

1. Shooting

As far as hardware goes, you’ll need two cameras, ideally the same model, although you can use any two that can record at the same resolution. You’ll also need some way of holding them together and some 3D glasses so you can edit and view the final result.

We used two Cisco Flip MinoHD pocket video cameras. We separated them slightly with Blu-Tack in order to reach the power button on the side of the camera. Be sure to use a ruler or other straight surface to ensure the camera’s lenses are at exactly the same height.

Once you’ve got your cameras lined up, you need to attach them together. We simply wound masking tape around the bottom of the cameras to hold them in place. Think of it as recording separate footage for your left and right eyes. This is the basic principle behind how 3D technology actually works.

With that set-up complete, you’re ready to go. What to shoot is, of course, up to you, although Kvaalen has some pointers to share. “You don’t want to film objects that are too close — you want to try and keep it at a decent distance — a few feet away is ideal,” says Kvaalen. In addition he suggests keeping the camera as stable as possible. This will yield the best results. Finally, try and press record at exactly the same time on each camera.

2. Editing

Once you’ve shot your footage, signed into your YouTube account and uploaded your two videos, head over to YouTube’s 3D Editor. It looks similar to the ordinary YouTube Editor, but you’ll see tabs on the bottom right that relate specifically to 3D editing. You can now drag and drop the two clips that you want to use to the “left” and “right” boxes.

The first thing to do is get the time sync right. Whereas this used to be done manually with editing software, the 3D Editor does it for you. Kvaalen explains: “You want to start filming with both cameras at the same time but that’s pretty much impossible, you’ll always have at least a few milliseconds off, so this uses the audio to sync them automatically.”

By “listening” to the audio from the videos — even just ambient sound — the Editor will be able to accurately time sync the two videos.

Next up is vertical alignment. Kvaalen offers some more advice: “Users should bolt the cameras together so they don’t move relative to each other, or “vertically shift,” but there is usually a small vertical difference in height. This tool lets a user manually suggest a vertical shift percentage.” As far as our attempt at guestimating the shift, we just kept tweaking until it looked right. Start at plus or minus 10% and keep going until you get the best result.

Finally, once you are happy with your video in the preview window, you can add a title in the top right hand box and publish it. After the video processes (usually a couple of minutes) you’ll have a shareable 3D video to impress your friends!

3. The Results

To view one of our test videos in 3D, you’ll have to grab your 3D glasses, but even if you can’t find a pair, we can report we were happy with the results.

With relatively little hardware and a pain-free editing process, YouTube’s aim of making 3D video creation simple, easy and “accessible to as many users as possible” has been achieved with the 3D Editor. We think there will be a lot of YouTube users having lots of fun with this 3D tool.

Have you used YouTube’s 3D Editor? How did you find it? Let us know and link us to your creations in the comments below.

While it’s easy to think of Memorial Day as another wonderful Monday in the sun and the unofficial start to summer, it’s important to remember that the day celebrates the many men and women that died while in the military service.

Mentions of the U.S. military stir up mixed emotions and controversy. Democrats, Republicans, pundits and citizens of all stripes have argued about what the role of America’s army should be. But even the most vociferous of critics will respect and honor the soldiers for their dedicated service even in the face of that debate.

In that spirit, we’ve collected some ways that you can show your support for the troops using social media this Memorial Day.

Let us know in the comments how you plan to help, especially if you are honoring someone you know.

Dog Bless You

Dog Bless You, a community created by the founder of Explore.org in partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans of America (IAVA). The campaign is donating service dogs to returning soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Rather than ask for donations, Dog Bless You is asking for a show of support. Users can upload patriotic photos, videos and comments on their Facebook Page. For every 5,000 “Likes,” Dog Bless You will donate one dog, up to 100 dogs (worth roughly $500,000 in total).

Snag Films

The IAVA also partnered with Snag Films for an online event and fundraiser. Snag Films is donation $1, up to $10,000, for every person who “Likes” or retweets from its dedicated Memorial Day page. The site features videos and documentaries aimed at promoting veteran awareness

A Million Thanks

You can show your support to troops still serving with A Million Thanks. The site helps you draft and mail letters of support to soldiers overseas. There are also options to donate, help grant a wish, help fund the education of a service-person’s child or simply share photos.

Joining Forces

The White House is showing its support through Serve.gov. The site offers news and updates, resources like a toolkit on how to help military families, and initiatives to help veterans and military families. You can post original projects, or sign up with Joining Forces where you can volunteer, send a message of thanks, or share a story of support.

Who It’s Good For: Parents who want to document their kids’ activities with a camcorder small enough to fit in a purse or coat pocket; video enthusiasts who like to travel light but want higher-quality video than a smartphone camcorder can provide

Limitations: Optical image stabilization still leaves you with shaky footage.

Bottom Line: You get a lot of camcorder for your $230 — the Samsung Q10 camcorder is small enough to fit in a purse or coat pocket, yet records better quality video than any smartphone.

A Close-Up Look At the Samsung Q10 Camcorder

The camcorder market is in a difficult position these days, because almost every smartphone has video recording capability. Why carry an extra gadget when you have a perfectly good camcorder right there on your smartphone? If you’re recording something important, such as your baby’s first steps, you might start thinking that smartphone camcorder is not perfectly good enough. However, you don’t want to carry around anything that’s too bulky. That niche is where the Samsung Q10 SwitchGrip Full HD Camcorder shines.

Samsung’s official name for this product is the Q10 SwitchGrip Full HD Camcorder, and I have a bone to pick with that nomenclature. The term “full HD” is misleading, because this is not the fullest resolution of the HDTV format, 1080p. The Q10′s highest resolution is 1080i, which is good enough quality — about the same as 720p — but it’s not the fullest of HD capability.

Now that we have that out of the way, the other part of the camera’s name is SwitchGrip. That clever feature will be a welcome sight for left-handed videographers, or those who find themselves in awkward positions and need to change hands while recording. It works by using a built-in sensor, similar to those on smartphones, that knows which way you’re holding the Q10, and then correctly orients the viewfinder and the video accordingly. It’s also smart enough to sense when you’ve turned the viewfinder around to face you when taking videos of yourself. Good idea, Samsung.

Open up the camera’s touchscreen, and that automatically turns on its power, playing a satisfying little musical phrase while it reminds you to open the lens cap. That’s too bad, because I’d like to see the lens cap opening automatically, but that might’ve been a cost consideration for a camcorder in this price range.

Once the camera has booted up, you’re presented with an easy-to-use menu system Samsung calls Smart Touch 3.0, all spread out on an exceptionally responsive touchscreen. Its capacitive touch is the best I’ve seen on a camcorder.

This tiny unit is small enough that you’ll be tempted to take it with you wherever you go. But there’s such a thing as too small, and even in a medium-size hand, this camcorder feels like there’s not enough to hold onto. It also took me a while to get used to its zoom control, which is not a lever, but a ring that surrounds the record start/stop button.

The Q10′s most delightful aspect is its exceptional video quality. In bright light outdoors, its resolution was sharp and clear, and its colors were satisfyingly saturated. Even in low light, the camera performed admirably, kicking up a slight amount of graininess but nothing objectionable (see my test video below, demonstrating the camera’s performance in both types of light). In short, the camcorder passed our shooting test with aplomb, beating out any smartphone camcorder I’ve ever seen.

One small gripe I have is with the camcorder’s optical image stabilization. I’m not expecting a professional-level SteadiCam at these prices, but it was hard for me to tell there was any image stabilization at work. With a camcorder this small, it’s difficult enough to hold it still, and a bit of smoothing out would have been a welcome feature.

But that minor shortcoming doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this tiny bundle of joy. I’m astonished at how far camcorders have progressed in the past few years, and the Samsung Q10 is a prime example. It was already a good deal at its retail price of $300, and you can find it for much less than that, which I consider a tremendous bargain.

Front and Center

This is a tiny camcorder, about the size of one of those mini soda cans.

One-Button Record

Surrounding the record button is the zoom control, which took a little getting used to.

Look How Small

You could almost hide this baby in the palm of your hand.

Top View

That OIS logo stands for Optical Image Stabilization, which I didn't think was very effective.

Viewfinder for Lefties

The only way you can tell the camcorder is upside down is by looking at that Home button on the right of the viewfinder.

Smart Touch 3.0

Settings Menu

It's 1080i

Not to belabor the point, but here's where Samsung finally owns up to the fact that this camcorder's shooting at 1080i.

Viewscreen

It's bright and easy to see, even on a sunny day.

Series Supported by Energizer®

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THQ has found a way to glom on to Zynga's popular "-Ville" franchises without impinging on any copyrights with a new social game, Margaritaville Online.

The game, "inspired by the lifestyle of author and singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett,” according to a THQ release, and based on the 1977 hit song, will hit Facebook and iOS devices this fall. The release describes the game as "an immersive 3D paradise, filled with frozen concoctions, music and adventure."

The game’s introduction comes after Zynga has had a slew of successes with FarmVille, CityVille, FrontierVille and, most recently, RewardVille. Though Homefront, a controversial Xbox 360 shooting game that takes place in a dystopian U.S. after a nuclear attack from North Korea, has done well for THQ, sales for THQ's fourth quarter fell 37%. Meanwhile, Margaritaville Online will be THQ's second social game, after UFC Undisputed Fight Nation.

NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station at 11:55 p.m. ET Sunday, embarking on its last voyage toward home.

After undocking, Endeavour flew around the station at distances of about 450 to 650 feet, with crew members taking videos and photos of the station.

During the flyaround, the Endeavour crew conducted a series of tests called STORRM (Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation) which will make docking to the ISS easier for future spaceships.

The Endeavour will spend another two days in orbit until it lands at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, June 1.

See our choice of some of the most interesting photos from Endeavour’s last voyage below, and check out a more extensive gallery over at NASA’s official site.

Are you one of those folks who like the idea of a smartphone camera, but think they still have ways to go before they can replace even a simple point-and-click standalone camera? An upcoming, unnamed smartphone from HTC might change your mind.

Unearthed via Twitter by Mobile-Review‘s Eldar Murtazin, the device is a Windows Phone 7-based smartphone with a 12-megapixel camera that also supports shooting in RAW mode, a feature many photo enthusiasts will find useful.

A 12-megapixel camera in a smartphone is not unheard of – Nokia N8 has one – but it’s definitely a first in the world of Windows Phone 7 devices.